GETTING AROUND.

Many, but few big, road repairs in the works

February 24, 2003|By Jon Hilkevitch.

Snowflakes in the air soon will be followed by clouds of construction dust stirred up by the 2003 road-fixin' season.

Just as it hasn't been a severe winter, this year's scheduled roadwork in the six-county area won't set any records. A few big projects that began in earlier years--most notably the reconstruction of Interstate Highway 57, South Lake Shore Drive and the Chicago Skyway--will draw closer to completion.

But without any projects of the magnitude of last year's Wacker Drive rehabilitation, drivers can expect the usual traffic mayhem on the area's congested highways and major roads.

"It's not an exciting year but certainly a time in which a lot of significant maintenance work is going to be accomplished," said Roy Olson, Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman.

IDOT is ready to begin preliminary work late this year on the reconstruction in 2004 and 2005 of the southern portion of the Dan Ryan Expressway (Interstate Highway 94). But the state's financial problems threaten to delay it. Gov. Rod Blagojevich is not expected to sign off on IDOT's fiscal 2004 budget for several months.

Here's a summary of some of the major state, county and Chicago road projects scheduled for this year, running in most cases through November. Suburban municipalities will oversee smaller, additional projects that are not listed.

Illinois State Toll Highway Authority

After being denied a toll increase last year, the tollway will try to maintain its 40-year-old system, launching a fourth resurfacing on some roads this year until funds for reconstruction are available, said Joelle McGinnis, toll authority spokeswoman .

The tollway's biggest project this year is the resurfacing of 37 miles of the Northwest Tollway (Interstate Highway 90) from Elgin to Rockford. It follows last year's resurfacing of the tollway from the Kennedy Expressway (I-90/94) to Barrington Road.

On the south Tri-State Tollway (Interstate Highway 294), work to widen bridges has already begun from 95th Street to Illinois Highway 394 in preparation for adding a fourth lane on I-294 to the Indiana line starting in 2004. The widening project is scheduled to coincide with plans by IDOT and Indiana officials to widen the Kingery and Borman Expressways (Interstate Highway 80) through 2006.

In addition to pavement and shoulder repairs on the North-South Tollway (Interstate Highway 355) and the East-West Tollway (Interstate Highway 88), a second I-PASS-only lane for automobiles is being added to the Touhy Avenue toll plaza on I-294, the Devon Avenue toll plaza on I-90 and the York Road plaza on I-88.

Illinois Department of Transportation

Work shifts to the northbound lanes on I-57 between I-94 and I-80 as the two-year rehab nears an end in late October.

The I-80 and U.S. Highway 45 interchange will be rebuilt, and, starting March 11, U.S. 45 will be widened from 179th to 191st Streets.

Interstate Highway 290/Illinois Highway 53 in the northwest suburbs will be rebuilt and auxiliary lanes will be added from Thorndale Avenue to Golf Road using new materials designed to double the life of the pavement to 40 years.

Preliminary work begins this year on rebuilding the interchange of La Grange Road (U.S. Highway 12/20/45) at Archer Avenue in the southwest suburbs. Major construction, including rebuilding La Grange Road with shoulders and a median wall, is scheduled for 2004.

North Avenue will be widened to six lanes between Illinois 53 and Villa Avenue in Lombard and Villa Park.

Nighttime resurfacing work is scheduled for Interstate Highway 55 from County Line Road to Willow Springs Road near Burr Ridge.

Chicago Department of Transportation

Reconstruction of South Lake Shore Drive from McCormick Place to 67th Street reached its midpoint in February. Work is scheduled to continue on the northbound lanes this year. The project ends in 2005.

Reconstruction of the half-milebridge over the Calumet River on the Chicago Skyway is scheduled to begin as the four-year Skyway project from 73rd Street to the Indiana border enters its third year. Work also begins on new ramps at 92nd Street and on the 87th Street toll plaza.

CDOT also plans to reconstruct the 73-year-old Central Avenue viaduct over Grand Avenue and the Ashland Avenue drawbridge over the south branch of the Chicago River; to continue rebuilding viaducts over the Kennedy and Dan Ryan Expressways; and to rehabilitate Chicago Transit Authority subway stations at Dearborn/Jackson on the Blue Line and at Lake/Randolph on the Red Line.

The city also will resurface Halsted Street from Madison to Fulton; 63rd Street from Western to Ashland; 69th Street from Halsted to State; and 79th Street from Stony Island to South Chicago Avenue.